Rebuilding and Hardening the Grid: SCE’s Strategy Post-2025 Wildfires

The Southern California wildfires destroyed many homes and structures, damaged both electrical and public safety infrastructure and resulted in fatalities in January 2025. Following the wildfires, Southern California Edison (SCE) is helping the impacted communities in its service territory to recover and build back a stronger grid.

“What happened during those wildfires was heartbreaking, and we remain with the communities that were impacted to help them to rebuild,” said Raj Roy, vice president of transmission, substations and operations for SCE. “The utility deeply appreciates the dedication and resilience of first responders, community partners and its crews, who have worked tirelessly to restore power and provide critical resources to those in need.”

For example, the wildfires inflicted severe damage to multiple distribution circuits and a substation in Altadena, California, and several distribution circuits in Malibu, California. Rebuilding the infrastructure in these impacted communities is similar to new construction and will require significant continued coordination to efficiently rebuild and restore service to customers, Roy said.

“While re-designing and constructing the grid is complex, and the timeline is dynamic, SCE is committed to working safely and expeditiously to restore electrical service, strengthen the grid and be a dedicated partner in rebuilding communities,” he said.

Steve Powell, the president and CEO of SCE, said SCE developed its three-year Wildfire Mitigation Plan (WMP) with a layered defense strategy to help safeguard its communities against wildfire threats. He said the recent wildfires underscored the importance and urgency in advancing mitigations and using new tools to increase infrastructure resiliency and safety. Case in point: SCE plans to invest $6.2 billion over the next three years to achieve the goals set forth by the WMP.

“While wildfire risk can never be fully eliminated, we continue to harden the grid and invest in innovative approaches to get as close to zero as possible,” he said following SCE’s filing of its 2026-2028 WMP to California’s Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety.

Here’s a look at the progress made so far to rebuild infrastructure following the wildfires.

Focusing on Safety and Community

When restoring power following the wildfires, SCE’s top concern was the safety of its customers, communities and team members. As such, the utility worked quickly during and after the storms to restore power to all those who could receive service safely within affected portions of SCE’s service area. The restoration process included assessing damage, reviewing the equipment and noting and resolving safety hazards.

Before re-energizing any lines, the crews inspected them completely to make sure they were safe and identified any damage and debris. In the areas impacted by the fires, SCE also has been working closely with federal, state and local officials to stay coordinated on the more immediate restoration efforts and longer-term planning for building back stronger.

SCE is also collaborating with community members, government and nonprofit and technology partners as part of the rebuild. The utility is part of LA County’s Recovery Organization, which coordinates parties involved in the rebuilding process and is opening a Community Support Center in Altadena to address customers’ needs and provide in-person support directly in the community it serves.

In addition, SCE has organized more than 50 listening sessions, including focus groups, community meetings and town halls. In the near future, the utility will continue to engage with community members to gather additional input and keep customers informed as it further refines and implements its plan.

Due to the potential for urban fire spread in Southern California coupled with the threat of extreme weather events, Public Power Safety Shutoffs (PSPS) remain a critical tool in SCE’s fight against wildfires. Over time, PSPS have shown that they can save lives, said Jill C. Anderson, executive vice president and chief operating officer for SCE.

“During the windstorm this past January, we identified nearly 90 potential ignition sources in the storm’s aftermath that were prevented because the lines were de-energized due to PSPS,” she said. “We continue to make investments in critical safety measures, such as covered conductor and fast-acting fuses that prevent potential ignitions across the service territory.”

To minimize the hardship of PSPS events, improve safety and provide more customer support, the utility is setting up Resiliency Zones and Community Resource Centers. The Community Resiliency Zones are designated public spaces, like schools, grocery stores and other public spaces, which can be used as emergency shelters with more than 24 hours of backup power for critical needs, along with microgrid capabilities. These facilities will help customers to maintain essential services during outages. SCE plans to designate about three to five Community Resiliency Zones in the Eaton and Palisades fire burn areas. In addition, the utility has eight Resiliency Zones to support customers impacted by PSPS largely in rural areas.

Undergrounding Power Lines

Within the communities impacted by the fires, SCE is pursuing plans to underground its distribution lines where it’s feasible and to coincide with the significant restoration efforts underway. The utility is assessing the long-term strengthening and rebuilding of the grid. It is also accelerating its existing targeted undergrounding plans, which it started evaluating very seriously immediately following the historic fire events.

“Underground systems and overhead covered conductors can help to reduce the risk of wildfires and increase reliability during high winds and storms by reducing the exposures of electrical infrastructure to extreme weather conditions,” Roy said. “We will continue to identify the highest risk power lines to underground.”

The extent of damage in the Altadena and Malibu areas makes rebuilding akin to that for new developments. New construction can make undergrounding more efficient compared to system upgrades in built environments.

Much of the undergrounding work in the Palisades Fire burn area is an acceleration of what was already planned. The utility’s current rebuilding plans reflect undergrounding about 153 circuit miles, which includes nearly all distribution power lines in High Fire Risk Areas (HFRA) within the burn scars of the affected communities.

For example, in Altadena, SCE has identified approximately 63 circuit miles of undergrounding, including all 40 miles of distribution circuits in HFRA and 23 miles in non-HFRA. The utility may continue to evaluate additional circuit miles for underground construction in the future. SCE has already began undergrounding two circuit miles, which are expected to be complete in the coming months.

In Malibu, California, SCE is undergrounding about 90 miles in impacted areas in Palisades, and most of it is the acceleration of planned work before the fire. Crews have already began undergrounding about 20 circuit miles.

As the utility focuses on underground work, it continues to assess the situation and what hurdles need to be overcome, including customer-dependent items such as service drops, meter locations and meter panel configurations.

SCE is undergrounding power lines in HFRA beyond the Palisades and Eaton rebuild areas, targeting the HFRA especially where lines have not been replaced by covered conductor. The utility also considers whether the area has limited exit and entry points to communities, high burn frequency, high winds exceeding covered conductor PSPS thresholds, exceptionally high potential consequence with a chance of burning 10,000 acres within eight hours and operational feasibility.

Planning and Executing Undergrounding

The process of undergrounding consists of three main steps — design, permitting and easements and construction. First, engineers and planners determine if putting equipment underground is feasible. Aside from terrain challenges, the planners must work with other utilities and government agencies to outline existing underground obstacles such as storm drain, water and sewer and gas lines. This allows planners to create a design for where the equipment might fit.

In addition, the utility must obtain permits from county, state and environmental agencies before construction can start. Obtaining the necessary property rights, like easements, can be another hurdle. In some cases, without property owner permission, SCE may be unable to underground stretches of equipment servicing entire neighborhoods.

Construction begins after the plans are complete and permits are granted. This includes potholing, vault setting, trenching, conduit installation and paving. The line crews then energize the system once all this work is complete.

While undergrounding the power lines, SCE is reassessing its current standards to discover more ways to be more efficient with its designs. The utility is also expanding its use of directional boring, a trenchless method of installing underground, and exploring alternatives to traditional undergrounding such as at-grade duct banks at ground-level distribution systems. By installing protected lines at ground level instead of traditional undergrounding practices, such as trenching into the ground, SCE’s crews can perform grid hardening work more quickly and cost effectively.

Leveraging New Technologies

SCE is planning to further mitigate wildfire risk by embracing breakthrough technologies and exploring undergrounding, automation and fault detection technologies to improve reliability.

“SCE’s wildfire mitigation strategy continues to evolve as we balance cost, reliability and safety while pioneering innovative technologies to protect communities from wildfire risks,” Powell said.

In March 2025, the utility held a forum to engage with the tech community and gather invaluable insights into its rebuilding plan. SCE is reviewing these ideas and scheduling further deep dive sessions with technology providers to vet solutions, prove benefits and use cases and discuss implementation where viable.

Hardening Lines

Power lines not underground will be hardened with covered conductor, which is considered the cornerstone of SCE’s portfolio of wildfire mitigations. This technology significantly reduces the threat of wildfires while improving reliability.

Covered conductor significantly reduces the possibility of the power line arcing or sparking if there’s contact with a flying object like a palm frond or a metallic balloon. As a comparison, covered conductor installation costs are significantly lower than undergrounding. Covered conductor has an average approximate cost of $900,000 per mile, while undergrounding has an average approximate cost of $4 million per mile.

Lineworkers are replacing industry-standard bare wire with covered conductor to reduce faults and ignition risk from contact with objects, as well as safely raising windspeed thresholds for PSPS in targeted areas.

“A key benefit of covered conductor is the speed at which it can be installed to achieve immediate wildfire risk reduction,” Roy said.

The installation process for covered conductor requires specific tools and techniques for stripping and installation. For example, torches and knives are not recommended for stripping covered conductor as they can damage the covering. Bare wire installation is simpler and does not need specialized tools for stripping. In remote, difficult-to-access terrain, line crews use helicopters to string covered conductor from pole to pole.

SCE has installed about 6,500 circuit miles of covered conductor since it began installations in 2018. It has covered about 70% of SCE’s overhead distribution lines in high fire risk areas. By end of 2025, SCE expects to be approaching 90% of total distribution lines in high fire risk areas hardened. By end of 2025, SCE expects to be approaching 90% of total distribution lines in high fire risk area hardened.

Expediting the Project Timeline

To accommodate customer demand, SCE is updating the grid design to restore power more quickly. Consistent with SCE’s grid enhancement plans throughout the service area, the utility is designing the underground infrastructure with more automated switching and fault detection equipment to enhance SCE’s ability to locate issues, isolate disruptions and restore service faster. These updates should reduce the frequency and duration of outages. The new infrastructure will also have increased capacity to accommodate future demand growth in these communities.

“Automation plays a crucial role in enhancing equipment maintenance and expediting power restoration by enabling swift fault detection, diagnosis and response,” Roy said. “It helps significantly reduce outage times and minimize customer impact.”

Another way that the rebuild project is moving on an accelerated timeline is through Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order, which expedites permits on projects. For example, this decision helped to cut down the red tape as it typically takes SCE’s teams several weeks to put together the paperwork to submit a coastal development permit exemption, let alone the time to process and gain approval or be granted an exemption. The emergency declaration gives cities, counties and other agencies an opportunity to expedite siting and permitting, which can speed up project timelines.

“Some sections of the undergrounding work are expected to be completed in just a few months versus what would have normally taken two years or more,” Roy said. “For example, Los Angeles County Public Works expedited encroachment permits, which allowed SCE to start trenching soon after project designs were complete.”

Looking to the Future

 Currently, a combination of internal and external crews is supporting restoration work.

“Undergrounding electrical lines is a complex process that will take time, but the emergency declaration gives the cities, counties and other agencies an opportunity to expedite siting and permitting, which can speed up the construction timeline.” Roy said.

The project is currently in various stages of progress. In the rebuild areas, some sections of the grid are set to be completed in just a few months, however, the full rebuild will take several years and is dependent upon when customers decide to rebuild their homes. 

Moving ahead, the utility will continue to be forward-looking in its rebuild as it relates to resiliency, adaption and expected electrical demand growth. SCE has formed a dedicated team to develop and implement a long-term strategy to build the grid back stronger. In addition, the utility aims to engage effectively with external stakeholders whose support and cooperation are essential to streamline the work.

Underground power lines can help reduce the risk of wildfires, reduce PSPS in certain cases and make the electrical system more reliable during extreme weather conditions by protecting it from high winds, vegetation and other hazards that could cause fires or power outages. By taking a proactive approach to wildfire mitigation, SCE is safeguarding communities and its electrical system.